Resources

When you’re ready to start learning everything there is to know about design, it’s important to remember one thing: you’re never going to know it all! Design is a very subjective process. Everyone has their own unique opinion on what constitutes good design. While there definitely objective ways to spot bad design (such as a door that you’re supposed to push to open, yet it has a handle that makes you think you should pull. Turns out, there’s bad doors everywhere!), for the most part, good or bad design is highly dependent on the situation.

I wanted to take the time to list some resources to help people who are just now getting interested in the world of design and they themselves might want to start creating! When it comes down to it, it’s our responsibility to foster the development of new designs are their interests arise, if we want the next generation of designers to live up to the high expectations that society has created for them.

Number One – Graphic Design:

Credit: Jessicakreis.com

For those readers that are interested in designing logos, vector art, or even learning about beautiful typography – this is a great tool for you. Canva is a great site that provides tutorials for beginners and even users that already have some previous graphic design experience. When it comes to the ever expanding world of the internet, graphic design is and always will be in high demand. It’s hard to overstate the benefits of learning the skills that it takes to become a graphic designer. If you do take the time to do so, there are an endless amount of companies across the world that would be happy to add your expertise to their staff.

Check out Canva and see if they have any tutorials that can help you on your quest to learning the valuable art of graphic design.

Number Two – Creating Seamless Textures:

Textures are everywhere online. They are the unsung heros of the internet, nearly every website that you visit uses textures to make your experience more immersive and visually pleasing. I’m sure that you’re familiar with some of these textures and maybe even have a few of your absolute favorites in mind. One of the challenges that comes along with using textures in web design is the ability of the texture to cover the entire area that it is meant for. Often times the texture isn’t large enough to cover a container or page background. When you try to simply repeat the texture you can see the lines between the edges of the image and it looks absolutely horrible! No one wants to have their pages in such a state of disarray.

Credit: jojo-ojoj.deviantart.com

This is where seamless textures come into play. They can be repeated in every direction to cover any sized area. All four of their sides are designed to blend together seamlessly, so it appears to the user that they are only seeing one large image. How cool! Knowing how to create these seamless textures is a highly valuable skill and it’s something that you can utilize over and over and over again throughout your collection of design projects.

Here is a simple explanation on how to create these seamless textures for your own use.

Number Three – Basic Sewing:

Clothing design is something that everyone is familiar with on some level or another. Unless you’re reading this from a nudist colony, you’re wearing clothing right now! This means that it’s not hard to appreciate good clothing design when you see it, if only because you’re so familiar with the end use of the products.

Credit: fthmb.tqn.com

Maybe you have some clothing design ideas that are in your head, but you just don’t know what to do with them. Sketching out designs is all great fun but it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of actually creating your own clothing items. I know a thing of two about textile manufacturing, in fact, I have worked for a clothing company for over 30 years here in California!

I would encourage anyone who is even partially interested in making their own clothing to give it a try. It’s really not nearly as hard as it seems to be at first. Just learn some basic sewing skills and you’ll be on your way to becoming America’s next trendy clothing designer!

Number Four: Free Wallpapers!

Credit: WallpapersCraft.com

I have to keep in mind the original purpose for my site here… and that’s awesome free wallpapers! Wallpapers Craft has become one of my favorite resources for high quality (free) desktop wallpapers. It’s important to mix up your wallpaper as often as you

can, especially for people with desk jobs. Sometimes at a desk job, work can become very monotonous and tedious. This is why it’s a good idea to vary your wallpapers. This can provide some much needed stimulation, even if only in a passing moment.